My colleague Jonathan Willishas projected a more modest increase in goal scoring for Yakupov, from 11 goals last year to 18 goals next year. But projecting Yakupov’s goal and point scoring, at this point, is as difficult a prediction as you can attempt.

Based on on-ice play, Yakupov and his coach Dallas Eakins failed each other last season. Yakupov’s two-way and combination play was weak, but Eakins never found a way to improve the player’s hockey fundamentals while keeping him doing what got him drafted so high, making skilled plays on the attack.

At the same time, between insider trade rumours, negative post-game comments from Eakins and visits from Yakupov’s agent to Edmonton, there appeared to be an unhealthy cold war being waged between Yakupov and the Oilers.

Bit of a mess, to say the least, and it didn’t seem a productive path for either side.

Part of the issue with Yakupov in 2013-14 was just bad luck, of course.

The kid had great puck luck as a rookie and scored 17 goals in 48 games on 21 per cent shooting. That was a promising start, even if such a high shooting percentage wasn’t likely going to be Yakupov’s career average.

Last year, though, Yakupov went the other way. He had terrible puck luck and scored just 11 goals in 63 games on 9 per cent shooting.

When it came to chipping in on scoring chances, the same trends are seen. Yakupov dropped a bit from chipping in on 3.4 chances per game as a rookie to 3.1 per game as a sophomore. But his conversion rate on those scoring chances crashed from 19 per cent — a high and unsustainable conversion rate for any forward not named Taylor Hall — to 12.1 per cent, a low rate for a skilled forward playing with other skilled forwards. A skilled forward on a good line should expect to see about 14 or 15 per cent of his chances end up as goals.

If nothing else, Yakupov should get some better puck luck this year and that should spruce up his point totals in 2014-15.

But there’s something more troubling at play here. Yakupov too often looked discombobulated on the ice. He appeared to be nervous, constantly fanning on shots and passes, as if he we were trying to get things done too fast. At the same time, he didn’t combine well with his teammates, often moving away from them when he should have been moving closer, or moving closer when he should have been moving away.

Do the Oilers talk to each other on the ice? Do they talk to Yakupov? Does he talk?

It’s not going to be any kind of easy project to blend Yakupov’s game into a team concept, but that’s why Eakins and his fellow coaches collect NHL pay cheques.

Yakupov has also got to play with a centre that actually looks to set him up, and a big tough winger who can win pucks on the boards.

Might Mark Arcobello and Benoit Pouliot work with him? Arcobello has great puck sense, he shoots right and he’s unselfish with the puck. Yakupov certainly doesn’t seem to blend well with Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who demonstrate a proclivity to make plays with one another, not so much with Yakupov.

Things were strangest on the power play last season. That’s where Yak was much less effective compared to his rookie year when it comes to creating and cashing in on scoring chances.

In 2013-14, Yakupov was only rarely positioned in his hot spot, on the right half-wall where he can unleash his cannon shot. When he was there, the team often failed to set him up. It didn’t appear to be the priority or the strategy. As we’ve pointed out repeatedly at this blog for a few years now, one problem is that Nugent-Hopkins likes to set up there as well, but having him in that position hasn’t work well since the first few months of his rookie season, as RNH lacks a killer shot. Again, as we’ve said repeatedly for ages, Yakupov or Taylor Hall need to be in that spot, and the Oilers need to make it a priority to figure out a way to get them open and constantly feed them.

Solve that pickle, figure out a way to unleash Yak’s shot on the power play, and his goal scoring total could move up fast.

There are too many unknowns here to make a sound prediction on Yak’s point scoring for the coming year. He could have 35 goals. He could have 5 goals. Willis’ prediction is right in the middle of those two numbers, which is a reasonable place to be.

That said, if the Oilers are going to get untracked as a team, and if Eakins and Yakupov are going to earn their keep in the NHL, a point total closer to The Hockey News prediction is needed.

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